Overview
These large flower-thrips usually have broad banded wings, although
Desmothrips reedi
is a bicoloured, often apterous, ant-mimic, living at the base of grasses. Most members of the family probably are facultative predators on other small arthropods and also feed on plant tissue or pollen (Kirk 1984b).
Andrewarthaia
(1 sp.) is found in
Eucalyptus
flowers and the recorded colour variation from dark brown to white may be related to differing levels of predation and herbivory (Mound 1972a).
Description
T10 without trichobothria, or (rarely) with a vestigial pair; S8 of female not developed. Cephalic tentorium with well-developed transverse bridge; antennae 9-segmented; fore wing broad with well-developed cross-veins; ovipositor valves upturned.
Distribution
The family is predominantly Holarctic although
Dorythrips
(2 Western Australian spp.) and
Gelothrips
(1 Indo-Australian sp.) occur also in South America, and
Cranothrips
(7 Australian spp.) is represented also in South Africa.
The family Aeolothripidae is found worldwide. However, the 90 species recognised in
Aeolothrips
are almost entirely Holarctic, and the six species of
Rhipidothrips
are Palearctic (zur Strassen, 2003), with a few species in both genera widely introduced around the world, including Australia and North America. Four of the 23 recognised genera are endemic to the Americas, four to the Afrotropical region, three to India and five to Australia.
Desmothrips
is known only from Australia, with 14 described species (Mound & Marullo, 1998) plus at least six undescribed species particularly from the north west of the continent, and a closely related Australian species is placed in a genus
Andrewarthaia
. Also known only from Australia,
Cycadothrips
includes three described species, and the Australian genera
Erythridothrips
and
Lamprothrips
each include a single species.
Three genera in the Americas have diversified,
Erythrothrips
with 14 species, and
Dactuliothrips
and
Stomatothrips
each with six or seven species, and in the Afrotropical region
Allelothrips
includes seven species. Similarly,
Franklinothrips
includes 14 tropical species, with one from Central America now widespread around the tropics but the others locally endemic including one in Australia.
Several genera remain known from only one or two species, indeed,
Euceratothrips
is known only from a single male specimen taken in Peru. Although a few genera are of doubtful significance,
Orothrips
is a particularly interesting valid genus with two species in California and one in southern Europe.